NEWS: 7 Steps to Set Up a New Home Care System

A new home care system means the opportunity to check existing records, review processes and look for improvements in managing care for your consumers. However it’s important to get off on the right foot! By setting up your new system you will be in the best place to make sure you can use its features effectively and maximise its benefits.

There are seven steps to setting up your new home care system - each with a key question to answer:

1. Who are your consumers and when did they start home care?
The best place to start is by preparing a list of all your consumers and their personal information. Make sure you have their home care package start date and any discharge dates and reasons.

2. What date will you start using the new system?
Get your staff and consumers ready by deciding on a date to start using the new system, remembering to factor in time for getting information together, entering in data and training the users of the system. From this date, the new system will take over by calculating amounts such as the government subsidies, consumer contributions and managing services. This is an important question that will set the date for the next few steps.

3. What fees are you charging?
As we know, home care has a number of different fees that are charged to consumers. The main ones are the prices that you charge for services, case management and administration fees, as well as an exit fee. Often this information is not all kept in one place so allow time for gathering it together and confirming each fee and charge.

4. What are your consumers’ opening balances?
To set up the new system to be ready on day one, the next step is calculating your consumer’s opening balances as at your chosen start date. Usually this will be available from the last consumer statement generated from your previous system. Also check if any of your consumers have had leave throughout the year as they can have opening leave balances as well.

5. What goals are in the care plans?
A good care plan in home care is consumer-directed and goal focused. Starting a new system gives you the opportunity to review the existing care plans and their goals.

6. What services are they receiving?
Following straight on from the goals in the care plans are the services that are being delivered to help consumers achieve their goals. Again, this is a great time to review the services for each consumer, checking the scheduling and the prices.

7. Where are the original agreements?
Each consumer will have a signed home care agreement that they entered into at the beginning of their package. Have copies of these agreements handy to reference as you are setting up your new system.

And that’s it! By answering these seven key questions, you will be covering the basics for setting up your new home care system – and setting yourself up for the best chance of success.